Breaking Plates
by NeverQuitDreaming
Summary: Sirius comes to the Kitchen with the purpose of distracting himself from something that is bothering him and for his favorite cheesecake, and finds instead Lily Evans surrounded by a mess of broken dishes and in the process of throwing eggs on the floor.


_Coward. _That single word was the reason Sirius Black, instead of sleeping for the past six hours, discovered that if you squint and tilt your head to the left, the red and gold curtains have very tiny intertwined lions embroidered on the edges. Having already changed his fellow marauders' hair, colored all their clothing, set up multiple booby traps for each, and came up with ten complex ideas for their next prank, he was even considering reading one of Remus' books. The combination of the suffocating dark and silence (excepting Peter's occasional snorts) was painfully, slowly driving Sirius closer to insanity. He squeezed his eyes tightly, now playing with the idea of using his wand, or perhaps waking up Remus to force a state of unconsciousness. Anything, he mused was better than laying there, his brother's furious face haunting his thoughts. As he turned over to his side, his stomached announced its complaint quite loudly, and Sirius smacked himself on the head. "Idiot".

Being careful not to wake any of the others, he found the cloak and picked his way out of the 6th year dormitory and down to the familiar portrait of the fruit basket. Once entering, he became aware of the following things: one, Lily Evans was sitting on his favorite stool in nothing but an blue, oversized, worn t-shirt, two, she was in the process of throwing eggs, rather ferociously at the floor, three, there was already a shards of plates, glasses, and bowls accompanying the poor eggs, and lastly, he was only in his boxers which he remembered, were very vibrant Gryffindor colors. They were his favorite pair.

He nearly screamed. All he wanted was to eat a piece of strawberry white chocolate cheesecake in peace! Briefly the thought of going back to the dormitory entered his mind and slipping out quietly but the horrible knowledge of what awaited him made him steel himself and take off the cloak and announce himself.

"Evans." She jumped, and turned around slowly, a blush covering her face. One of the many draw backs to being a ginger. He couldn't help but smirk.

"Black." Her eyes narrowed a little, her mouth twisting into a scowl. A little house elf broke their silent staring contest. She had been inching to the large mess on the floor with pursed lips, but now smiled widely at him.

" Mr. Black! So good to see you again sir! Can Lenka get you anything?" She scuttled toward him.

"6 pieces of strawberry white chocolate cheesecake." Lily continued to glare at him. Lenka bowed, and with one last look at the mess of eggs and dishware, set off to fetch it. He walked up to the stool next to Lily avoiding the shards and broken egg shells.

"6 pieces, Black?" She said haughtily, raising an eyebrow.

"I'm a growing boy Evans." He grinned and sat down. A pregnant pause, then

" What brings you to the kitchen this late at night or, "She glanced down at her watch, "this early in the morning?"

_Oh you know, I'm just disturbed by the intense row my brother and I got into today and I found out that he is planning on becoming a death eater next month and mostly that's because I ran away to James' over the summer, to get away from that horrible, life sucking, brain washing place, and left my younger brother there to fend for himself. _Sirius pushed his ink black hair off his face and sought a more casual answer.

"Couldn't sleep. You?"

"I couldn't sleep either." At this Sirius let out a harsh laugh.

"So you decided to waste time by throwing eggs and smashing every breakable object you could find?" Lily reddened once again, and dropped her gaze to the egg she was still holding in her hand.

" Yes. You should try it sometime, its quite entertaining really." She bit her lip and somewhat absentmindedly waved her wand over the mess and the broken yoke and shell of all the crushed eggs disappeared. Then, with a flick of her wrist, all of the plates, bowls, goblets repaired and stacked themselves neatly next to her on the counter.

"Miss Evans did I not tell you that Lenka would be happy to clean all of that up?" Lenka hurried in and sat down a big plate of cheesecake infront of Sirius.

"Yes, I know, but I didn't want you to go through the trouble of all of it again, e and its really much easier for me to just magic it all away." Lenka huffed and went back to deal with the pile of dirty dishes in the sink.

It was strange for Sirius to eat next to Lily. Their short conversation had been the first semi polite conversation they ever had. It was possibly the first thing he said to her all year. James announced over the summer that he was officially done with mooning over Lily Evans, and while the rest of the marauders made bets about when he would crack, and still remain doubtful, so far James had been true to his word. He hasn't stalked, talked, or even really looked at her so far. He was enjoying the silence, something James has never been able to do, when Lily began speaking very fast.

"You know what Black? I lied. I'm not down here just because I can't sleep. I've had a bloody terrible week, and I can't take it! And I know what you're thinking, what everyone's thinking! Perfect, naïve, innocent, snotty, prude, stick in the mud Lily Evans! What could possibly be so bad for her? She doesn't know anything about the world; she's just a sheltered little girl! Well you know what?" Sirius felt a twinge of guilt at her description of herself. That, however, was overwhelmed by the feeling of utter terror as she stood up with her wand several centimeters from his nose. With her face so close to his, he noticed her red, puffy eyes and the dark circles that was proof of many nights without sleep. Her long red hair was pulled into a loose bun at the top of her head, and much of it had fallen out in her rant.

"Perhaps you should move your wand from my face; I'm rather attached to my eyes." She ignored his suggestion and while keeping her wand in position, grabbed the plate of his delicious cheesecake in one hand and smashed it in his hair, face, and smeared it all over his chest.

"I'm tired of everyone judging me." She said it tiredly, and licked the remains of the cheesecake off her fingers. Sirius, bemused from what just happened and what the next course of action would be with a clinically insane Lily, rubbed his hand across his face, and proceeded to eat the crushed cheesecake. Several seconds later Lily, it appeared had the same issue James has with silences, spoke again.

"Can we just forget for a moment that I'm me and you're you, and all that rubbish and just start over like strangers for a moment?" Sirius stopped eating the cheesecake off his fingers and turned to her slowly.

"You just screamed at me, threatened me with a wand, and smashed my favorite cheesecake all over me, and now you want to pretend like we are mates all of a sudden?" He started to laugh, that echoing bark like laugh until he nearly fell off the stool and had to grasp her pale arm for support.

She smiled weakly. "I know I'm a little bit mad right now, but I just need someone to talk too. And well, I tried talking to my friends about it, but I once heard sometimes its easier to talk over things to a stranger..." She trailed off hopelessly. Sirius stopped chuckling and considered her offer. He never could take it when girls got all weepy. And by the looks of Lily, he supposed she might be heading down that direction. Besides, it would prolong him from having to return to the dormitory.

"Okay. I suppose I can do that." She quickly squeezed his hand in appreciation. "So what is the reason you couldn't sleep and had to come to the kitchen to break things?" He said dully.

"My sister has pretty much kicked me out of my home this summer due to the fact she hates me and is doing wedding plans and dear ol' Mum and Da are going along with it, I caught my boyfriend of 5 months snogging Mary the slag in the common room and was humiliated in front of everyone, and lately I can't help but feel that I need to be out there, helping fight some way." She bit her lip again and began tracing the grains of wood in the counter with her pointer finger. Sirius let out a breath.

"I found out today that my brother is going to become a Death Eater next month. He called me a coward, told me that when I ran away from home, I abandoned him. He said he's excited to join the side that is brave and will actually change the world for the better. He told me he wanted to kill me. He tried to actually. " His cheesecake covered hands gripped the counter top, revealing his anger despite his light tone. The two sat in silence for several seconds. Then, Lily took a glass plate off the neat stack and handed it to him and checked her watch.

"We have three hours until breakfast starts." She announced solemnly. His lips twitched upwards as he threw the plate at the floor, watching as it landed with a crash, crumbling into many pieces.

"We have a lot of dishware to break then." Lily met his stormy grey eyes and grinned.

"You know, you've got a wee bit of cheesecake on your nose." Sirius raised his eyebrows, swiped a handful of cheesecake off his face and rubbed it in her red hair.

Lenka the house elf watched the pair alternatively throw various dishes on the floor and fling cheesecake at each other, waiting for an opening to clean before Miss Lily Evans could use her wand.


End file.
